Do I need a phone line?
No. The Netstalgia box is not a telephone modem: there is no phone line and no phone socket. Your PC dials the box as if it were a modem, the box plays the call, and the connection itself goes over your home Wi-Fi. The number you dial, 638-782-5442, never leaves the box, so there is nothing to pay for.
Which Windows do I need?
Netstalgia Online runs on Windows 98, 98 Second Edition, Me and XP. It brings its own web browser, so you don't need anything else from the Internet.
The box's USB modem works with Windows 98 Second Edition, Me and XP, with the driver from the box's setup page. See first-time setup.
What about Windows 95?
Netstalgia Online's Setup is made to start on Windows 95 too, as long as Internet Explorer 4 or later is installed first (it came with Windows 95 OSR 2.5 and on many magazine cover CDs). We haven't tested it on Windows 95 yet, so let us know how you get on.
Windows 95 and the first edition of Windows 98 have no USB modem support, so to dial a box they need its serial port, which is still being tested. Meanwhile they can sign on to Netstalgia Online over a network connection.
Do I need a box to use Netstalgia Online?
No. Netstalgia Online can sign on over a PC's ordinary network connection, without the call. The box gives you the real dial-up experience: the modem sounds, the lamps, and the old web in Archive mode. You can build your own.
Do I need to open ports on my router?
No. Signing on, the live web and the radio use plain port 80, the same door your web browser uses, through their netstalgia.online addresses. There is nothing to forward or open, whether you dial a box or use your PC's own connection. FTP, mail and IRC use their own usual ports, going out from your PC like any other program.
The Sign On window says "Waiting for the Netstalgia box to open the line..."
That's normal. After the call connects, the box needs a little while to get its connection ready, and the program waits up to a minute for it. If it is still waiting after that, check the NET lamp on the box: it must be on your Wi-Fi.
Is my mail private?
Mail between members, instant messages and chat lines are kept for 30 days, so that a report of abuse can be checked, and then deleted. Only the owner, who is also the moderator, can look at them, and only to look into reports and keep the service running. Nothing is ever sold or shared.
Like every service of 1999, the program's connection isn't encrypted (old Windows can't do today's encryption), but your password never crosses the line. Don't send anything by Netstalgia mail that you wouldn't put on a postcard.
If you add your own mailbox, your mail goes between your PC and your provider, and the box adds your provider's encryption on the way. Netstalgia doesn't keep it. The full story is on the privacy page.
What is Archive mode?
A setting on the box. With Archive mode on, the web and FTP come from the archive instead of today's Internet: restored copies of popular 1990s sites from Protoweb (the Wayback Machine's pages from a year you pick are there too, for the web only). Old sites load at their old addresses, so period browsers find what they expect. Everything else (IRC, mail, games and Netstalgia Online's own services) still goes to today's Internet at dial-up speed. Secure https sites don't work in Archive mode: the archive has none.
Switch it on the box's setup page, or during a call from the dial-up PC at
http://netstalgia.local. More on the box page.
I forgot my password!
Use the recovery code you wrote down when you got your screen name. Type your screen name, the code and a new password on the forgotten password page, or in the Netstalgia Online Sign On window. You get a new recovery code at the same time, and the old one stops working: write the new one down.
The recovery code is the only way back in. If you have lost both the password and the code, we can't get the account back for you. If you are logged in, you can make a new code at any time from your account.
How old do I have to be?
13 or older, to get a screen name. See the Terms of Use.